OK, here's a titbit. Snickers was called Marathon in the UK until 1990. There was quite a hooha when it was changed.

Mars Inc.'s...has a pet-care segment. My VCA Vet is owned by The Mars company.

Floral, there was a Marathon bar in the US, 1973-1981. just a chocolate braid covered in caramel. It was good, but didn’t sell. it was owned by Mars.

Today is “Men Make Dinner Day”, annually on the 1st Thursday of November. It’s intended to be the one guaranteed meal cooked by the man-of-the-house each year.

The lollipop was invented in 1908 by George Smith. The hard candy had been around for a while but Smith came up with his own version and named it after his favourite racehorse "Lolly Pop."

On November 2, 1842 Abraham Lincoln married Mary Todd.

And, this one tickles me:

James Ritty patents first cash register, to combat stealing by bartenders in his saloon in Dayton, Ohio

On November 4, 1879

I just learned that Ultimate Frisbee is a sport in high schools in my township. Better than football, imho.

VCA was started some 30+ years ago. It grew by buying existing vet practices all over and ultimately became a publicly traded company. Mars bought it, taking it private, about 5 years ago. I believe corporate vet chains Blue Pearl and Banfield are also now owned by Mars.

Ultimate Frisbee is not only a sport, but you can also get a collage scholar ship to some very big name collages. just learned this as I have a grandson is on track to win one. The kids play 3 days a week in school, and then on Saturdays they play for about 4hours.

I learned the other day that slap fighting is getting its own league 😃

In other news - there's a thing called slap fighting...

Did you know that Platypuses (platypi?) and their close relatives, Echidnas, are the only mammals that lay and incubate their eggs ?

Speaking of the Mars family, Franklin Mars also owned quite a spread and a castle called Milky Way Farms in Pulaski, TN, outside of Nashville back in the 30’s. Here is a Link to some info and photos. Wikipedia also has some info. It’s now used for weddings and such. I’ve driven by the gates but that’s all. Makes me wonder if that’s where he kept Snickers, Annie.

Mars has a huge stake in pets and pet care: not just VCA, Banfield, and Blue Pearl vet clinics, but also Antech diagnostic labs (a major veterinary lab), and pet food brands including Royal Canin, Cesar, Iams, Whiskas, and Pedigree.

The Scrub Jay is one of the smartest birds on Earth. it has been extensively studied and among one of its most amazing traits is that it can store catches of foods in thousands of different places and remember them.

Unfortunately Mars is also buying Champion Petfoods which makes Acana and Orijen, ; both quality food.

Seems as if it could be very bad for consumers if their corporate vet’s office also owns the labs whete they order very expensive tests to be run. Could be a great incentive to order excessive tests, if there is more profit for them. I’m pet free these days, but it seems from what I hear, more and more of our local vets are being bought out by large corperations.

" Could be a great incentive to order excessive tests, if there is more profit for them. "

There's a separation of power (and money) there......While it does make more profit for the parent company, it doesn't matter to the vets that are making the testing decisions how much the parent company makes. However, it might allow clinics to charge less for the same tests, if they are owned by the same company and get a lower corporate rate. But I don't know if that actually happens.

If that vet is paid on a commission basis, they would get more money by unethically ordering more (and more expensive) tests, but that would happen regardless of who owned the diagnostic lab. An unethical vet will be an unethical vet, regardless of who owns the clinic where they are working.

Oly, you injure your knee and make an appointment for an orthopod to make a diagnosis, Before you even see the doc, they take you to the third door on the left when an x-ray is taken. Same is true with animals at a specialty hospital and perhaps some GP clinics too.

Or, you have an appointment for a Mohs procedure. The dermatologist is both the surgeon and the pathologist, taking samples and then turning to a microscope where s/he determines the nature of the sampled tissue and returns to the surgical procedure, repeat and rinse. You're billed for both the doctor's services and the "lab" work done at the same time by the same doc.

You and TVet should know that currently accepted and prevailing standards of care in most areas require more testing, not less, to avoid something being overlooked. A colleague usually knows enough to assess what's excessive/unnecessary and what's indicated but patients and clients, not so much.

TV, it may very well be different in Canada but in the US and even at general practices, veterinary associates (non-owners) are typically paid a base salary plus a percentage of production. I know that to be true for VCA and Blue Pearl. How does such a practice differ from what's done at by any service provider we all deal with? Plumbers, dentists, painters, contractors, counselors, piano teachers, you name the occupation, all earn more if more is done when they own the business and oftentimes get a percentage when they don't.

TorontoVet, I was imagining a corporate system where there are incentives for the Docs to produce income by ordering more tests than might be absolutely necessary. But you’re right, if someone is unethical , they would be so in any setting.

" You and TVet should know that currently accepted and prevailing standards of care in most areas require more testing, not less, to avoid something being overlooked. "

Not so. While it may be true in human medicine, where there is an abundance of CYA, it's not true in veterinary medicine where there's less malpractice concerns and more understanding that more tests don't necessarily lead to better care.

" veterinary associates (non-owners) are typically paid a base salary plus a percentage of production "

I mentioned that in my post, and it remains true that an unethical vet won't be more unethical if the clinic is owned by the same company that owns Antech. They'll be unethical if they work for a private owner, or even if they're the owner themselves......but most vets aren't unethical. I'm against production-based pay, but not because it will make ethical vets into unethical vets.

Here's the nugget I gleaned from listening to a radio talk show this afternoon. A caller chastised the host for making fun of the horoscope columns. (This isn't going where you think it is.)

She said that, as a good Catholic, the host should know that it's a sin to read horoscopes. She had the citation to back it up.

The extreme medical malpractice lawsuit storm is gone in much of the US, due to states putting reasonable (and low) caps on injury awards. That redirected the ambulance chasers to spend more time with frivoluis slip and fall and wrongful termination complaints.

If you think that vets don't overtreat/overprescribe/overcharge, you're being disingenuous or naive. Did you see the comment in this forum in the last few days about the person whose vet prescribed a type of special food for their cat, and sold it too them for $60 for a relatively small amount? How prevalent is it for vets to overcharge for prescriptions and only grudgingly agree to provide one in writing to take to a pharmacy (vet or human) where prices can be substantially lower? Most everyone with a pet has experienced that vet scam.

Many vets aren't unethical? Nonsense, they can be more so if working in an area with an oversupply of vets - you need to maximize $$$'s from each patient visit and treatment.

Here's the most common one I've heard of -GP vets who try to treat problems or conditions that really should be seen by specialists. But they don't refer the patient/client to a specialist. Why? They don't want to give away the revenue. GP dentists do the same thing. Money clouds judgement.

Leon Weiss, who came up with the slogan "Indescribably delicious" won $10 in the contest to come up with this description. However, the grandmother of my friend Rylie thinks that she invented this slogan. She also told me that she went to Mexico City in 1957 when it was just a small town (4.75 million in the metro area).

If I learn something every day, I probably forget twice that much.

I grew up close to Houston and moved there three years after the Astrodome was completed, and so it was still quite new. I very much remember the invention of Astroturf, and it has been greatly improved recently.

The Astrodome was built on or next to a swamp, which is why the land was available so close to downtown.

" She had the citation to back it up. "

Did you remember the citation?!?

TV -- Sorry, I missed the source, but I'd guess it derives from the First Commandment: Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

This is in the hard-to-believe category, but the right shoe wasn’t invented until 1818! Until that time, there was no distinction between shoes made for left or right feet. The first pair of right and left footed shoes were made in Philadelphia.

And thank you, Colleen.

I was watching an old program about the "Miracle on the Hudson" the other day. I'd known that an Australian invented the "black box" flight recorder but hadn't realized that it was also an Australian who invented those inflatable escape slides cum rafts. Probably saved a lot of lives that day.

Thought about this thread when I was washing my glasses this morning. Always wash your glasses in a gentle stream of cold water.

For years I used hot water, rubbed very gently to wash and dry, but the lenses would always scratch. Two years ago the salesman explained that the coatings on modern lenses sort of melt in hot water, so using cold water keeps the coating hard and more scratch resistant. Amazing (to me, maybe ya'll already knew this!).

I found out a ruby-throated hummingbird weighs as much as a penny....but don't ask me how they go about weighing it!

dedtired - my son played professional Ultimate Frisbee up and down the west coast for a couple of years about 10 years ago. He started in high school and still plays in a rec league for fun. It's a sport that's tough of the body.

Re cleaning glasses- I was also told (not too long ago) to never wipe your glasses with the cleaning cloth as all you're doing is rubbing whatever is on the lenses around and scratching them. Always run water on them first with a gentle soap and then dry them with the cloth.

Today I learned that there are more than 5 senses.

I thought this was going to be a fun thread - apparently not.

It's still fun if you skip over the parts that you don't like - I'm good at that.

I need to learn more about cleaning glasses. I often spray mine with water and then wipe them off with a cloth. I have found that microfiber cloths work best, and often without wetting them.

I think you are not supposed to use Windex on glasses because you might not wipe all of it off, and you do not want ammonia close to your eyes.

I also think that Windex can harm coatings in glasses that are not glass, which is many of them these days.

You can always tell when a train has gone through an area because you can see its tracks.

The discussion about cleaning glasses reminded me of a snorkeller/diver trick. Spit is a natural surfactant and will prevent a mask from fogging up.

For cleaning eyeglass lens, I buy Zeiss Lens Wipes from Amazon. There are other brands too. They are small, dampened wipes in foil packages, easy to open and use and work very well. I keep them in a few drawers around the house and in the driver-side door pockets of cars (to clean sunglasses) so they're always handy and available.

FWIW, something I learned a long time ago from our family optometrist - before polishing, wipe the lens in one direction only to remove any debris that might scratch - no circular wiping.

Of course I mostly use my shirt 😄

The thing that has caused more scratching than anything else is dropping my glasses on the ground - and once I put my sunglasses in my pocket with an emery board. Learned the hard way not to do that again!

I use a little bit of Dawn dishwash liquid on my lenses, very gently rubbed (barely touching the glass) with my fingertips, then rinse, shake dry, and final dry with the silky square cloth that came with my glasses. If I'm out and about and they get dirty, I wait until I get home.

The eyeglass store gave me a squirtbottle of stuff to clean with, but I don't like it as much as Dawn.

Tap water can cause black mold at the base of the nose pads or, worse yet, green mold. Dry carefully.

Acute Bronchitis is ………A CHEST COLD! First it sounds dangerous, then deeply trivialised. Well, I have it now, and and it is no chortling matter, so bah humbug to that new one to me.! who is gonna feel sorry for me now? 🥲

I was watching a movie based on a true story (which I doubled checked): Marcel Marceau (the famous mime) was a Jewish person who as a young man was in the Jewish French Resistance and helped save many Jewish children and adults from the Nazis.

New word for me...

Spoiler alert if you do the NYT daily mini puzzle!! (Thurs 11/17/22)

-------------------

HYGGE

pronounced

whoo -geh or hew - geh

Meaning: a quality of coziness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being (regarded as a defining characteristic of Danish culture)

Annie, that is funny because I never heard of the word, but on one of the mammoth threads over on the decorating forum this word was used several times. I had never heard of it before either, but now I see it fairly often.

It's the one with Corner Art. Anyway I think it's a nice word and yes we do learn something new every day. It's good when we can remember that thing!

Oh my gosh! I love that word. I use it quite often. I have a p i nterest page on it. LOL Remember this song? I’ve always imagined they are saying hygge.

The Disney show Frozen had a song about it, too.

Here in Arendelle
The winters can be well
Let's just say it's not so very good
But even at this latitude
We'll keep a happy attitude
Until we burn our final piece of wood
See, there's a word we live by
To keep our feelings great
You don't have this word in English
But allow me to good translate
Hygge

Hygge means comfortable
Hygge means cozy
Hygge means sitting by the fire with your cheeks all rosy
Hygge hygge hygge hygge hygge hygge
Hygge hygge hygge hygge hygge hygge
Hygge-ly hygge-ly hygge-ly hygge-ly hygge-ly hygge-ly
I will translate more

Hygge

Hygge means comfortable
Hygge means cozy
Hygge means sitting by the fire with your cheeks all rosy
Hygge hygge hygge hygge hygge hygge
Hygge hygge hygge hygge hygge hygge
Hygge-ly hygge-ly hygge-ly hygge-ly hygge-ly hygge-ly
I will translate more

Hygge means candlelight
Hygge means easy
Hygge means all together playing, how you say? Parcheesi
Finding a spider in your shoe
Not hygge
Having an annoying thing to do
Not hygge
Hygge's not scheduled
You can't see where it starts or ends
Most importantly it can't be hygge without your family and friends